In 1968-69, during the "Second
Korean War," 59,000 gallons of three toxic chemicals defoliated nearly
21,000 acres of the DMZ. For vets of the U.S. 2nd and 7th Infantry divisions,
the recent U.S. government acknowledgment is a major breakthrough. It is said
you can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. Events transpiring on
the Korean Peninsula some 30 years ago add credence to that old adage. An
investigation by the South Korean government into reports U.S. troops sprayed
Agent Orange along the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) three decades ago has
raised questions about possible contamination of American servicemen who also
served on that hostile border. Citing declassified U.S. Department of Defense
documents, Korean officials fear thousands of its soldiers may have come into
contact with the deadly defoliant in the late 1960s and early 1970s. According
to one top government official, as many as "30,000 Korean veterans are
suffering from illness related to their exposure."

The exact number of GIs who may have been
exposed is unknown. But C. David Benbow, a North Carolina attorney who served
as a sergeant with Co. C, 3rd Bn., 23rd Inf. Regt., 2nd Div., along the DMZ in
1968-69, estimates as many as "4,000 soldiers at any given time"
could have been affected.

Orange along the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ)
three decades ago has raised questions about possible contamination of American
servicemen who also served on that hostile border. Citing declassified U.S.
Department of Defense documents, Korean officials fear thousands of its
soldiers may have come into contact with the deadly defoliant in the late 1960s
and early 1970s. According to one top government official, as many as
"30,000 Korean veterans are suffering from illness related to their
exposure."

The exact number of GIs who may have been
exposed is unknown. But C. David Benbow, a North Carolina attorney who served
as a sergeant with Co. C, 3rd Bn., 23rd Inf. Regt., 2nd Div., along the DMZ in
1968-69, estimates as many as "4,000 soldiers at any given time"
could have been affected.

Benbow, a life member of Post 2031 in
Statesville, N.C., is spearheading a campaign to publicize the use of the
defoliant in South Korea. He bases his estimate on "the number of GIs who
received hostile fire pay" while serving between 1968 and 1973.
"Hostile fire pay began on April 2, 1968, for soldiers serving north of
the Imjin River," Benbow explained. "And it ended on Sept. 1, 1973.
These 4,000 soldiers [out of the 50,000 serving at any given time in Korea]
should be the focal point for determining the rate of exposure." The
region was on heightened alert due to the continuing war in Vietnam and the
seizure of the USS Pueblo by North Korean forces, Benbow said. According to a
Pentagon spokesman, the total number of soldiers serving "North of the
Imjin River" during the period in question "[probably] did not exceed
20,000."

'Widespread' Herbecide Use Previously, the U.S.
government had said Agent Orange was used only in Vietnam. But a recent
television report by the Seoul Broadcasting System quoted from the Defense
Department documents: "American troops stationed in South Korea spread
more than 21,000 gallons of toxic defoliants along the border in 1968 and
1969." At a Pentagon briefing, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said the U.S.
military "researched the matter" as a result of the South Korean
media reports. "[But] there is no evidence of an effort to cover up use of
Agent Orange in Korea," Quigley stated. Its use was not classified but
"just had fallen off people's scopes for a long period of time."

There was "widespread knowledge" of
the use of herbicides in Korea at the time, Quigley added. "Along with
involvement of the U.S. secretary of state and comparable South Korean
officials." Regardless of the claims and counter-claims, evidence of
existence of the previously classified documents has been around for more than
a decade. Denver Combs, director of the Montgomery County Veterans Service
Center in Kettering, Ohio, cited the documents in a Jan. 11, 1989, newspaper
column.

"[Recently released documents] clearly
substantiates that Agent Orange was also applied in Korea as early as
1968," Combs wrote. "[Agent Orange] was used primarily along the DMZ
where over 12,000 of our men were assigned." According to Combs, the
chemical was used "to keep the area on either side of the 18.5-mile
barrier clear of vegetation."

The report first came to light through the
persistence of Richard D. Morrow, a former 2nd Infantry Division soldier who
also "walked the perimeter" during the early 1970s. Upon returning to
the states, Morrow began to develop classic symptoms of Agent Orange exposure.
"After [Morrow] fought to get the documents released," Benbow said,
"he stayed with it until Congress passed the Agent Orange Act of
1991." Essentially, because of Morrow's efforts, Benbow added, "The
legislation allows for service members stationed outside of Vietnam to apply
for VA disability benefits."

According to the Veterans Benefits
Administration (VBA), service members who served along the Korean DMZ during
the late 1960s and early 1970s are covered under the 1991 Agent Orange Act. For
veterans who served elsewhere on the peninsula, eligibility for benefits will
be determined on a case-by-case basis. Special legislation would have to be
enacted for "blanket coverage," VBA says.

SINCERE
MOTIVATION

In the intervening years, Combs, Benbow, Morrow
and others have worked to bring the story to the public's attention. Mostly,
however, it remained a back-burner topic until the Korean media broke it last
November. Benbow thinks it's about time. "An old Army buddy of mine, Jimmy
Fleenor, often commented that he remembered being on patrol [along the DMZ] and
walking through head-high vegetation dripping with defoliant and diesel
fuel," Benbow said. "He told me how his clothes were soaked from the
defoliant even though it hadn't rained for days. It's stories like this that
have kept me motivated to try to do the right thing."

Benbow, an "Admin. NCO," who also
"walked patrol and served in the foxholes [along the DMZ]," remembers
seeing Korean troops and service workers using "hand-applied
sprayers" to clear away the thick foliage in the no-man's land separating
North from South Korea.

"Every night of the 16 months I spent in
Korea, GIs were sitting in foxholes along the barrier fence and the area was
totally devoid of vegetation," Benbow said. "We also filled our
canteens and water cans from a spring at the base of a defoliated guard post called
'Gladys.' Agent Orange had to have washed down the hill and into our water
supply."

VA
DECISION CRUCIAL

A March 12, 1999, ruling by VA's Board of
Appeals served to bolster Benbow's claims. Citing the 1991 legislation, the
Board awarded full VA benefits to a former "Camp Casey soldier"
suffering from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (a cancer widely associated with Agent
Orange exposure).

Linkage of the disease with exposure to Agent
Orange in Korea marked a major milestone for Benbow and his fellow veterans.
"Taken [in context] with release of the documents, there is no doubt that
our suspicions were right all along," Benbow said. "[We] are not
doing this for anything other than fairness."

REF:

JOHN L. DAVIS, a VFW life member, is a Virginia
based free-lance writer.

NEW Information
provided regarding the use of Agent Orange in
Korea along the DMZ,

including the units in
the area during the period in which AO was sprayed.

Department of Defense
(DoD) has now provided a correction to two of the cited units.

Previously reported as
the 109th and 209th Infantry, those units were actually
1/9th and 2/9th Infantry.

A corrected listing of
units are as follows:

The four combat
brigades of the 2nd Infantry Division:

1/38th
Infantry, 2/38th Infantry, 1/23rd Infantry,

2/23rd
Infantry, 3/23rd Infantry, 3/32nd Infantry, 1/9th
Infantry,

1/72nd
Armor, 2/72nd Armor,

4th/7th
Cavalry.

Also the 3rd
Brigade of the 7th Infantry Division:

1/17th
Infantry, 2/17th Infantry,

1/73rd
Armor,

2/10th
Cavalry.

DoD has stated that
21,000 gallons of AO were sprayed in Korea in 1968 and 1969 in an area from the
Civilian

Control Line to the
Southern boundary of the DMZ. Only Republic of Korea troops were involved in
the actual

spraying of the
herbicide AO in Korea. However, it is plausible that U.S. service members in
the area near spraying operations may have been exposed to AO during this
period.

There were
approximately 40,000 US service members deployed annually in Korea in 68-69,
with nearly 100 percent turnover each year, i.e. as many as 80,000
service members over the two year period.

VA currently offers
through its VA Medical Centers the Agent Orange Registry (AOR) examination
to all United States veterans who served in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
Participating veterans are given baseline lab work-ups, with particular
attention to those illnesses that VA presumptively links to AO exposure. The
AOR has helped Vietnam War veterans by providing an entrance to VA healthcare,
providing the opportunity for recording a comprehensive military history, and
as a means of veterans outreach to share future developments and provide access
to VA’s
Agent Orange Review newsletter.

VA will now provide a veteran who served
in the Korean Conflict in 1968-69 with this same AOR examination,

consultation and counseling, if the veteran
requests participation in the AOR examination program. Accordingly, The
benefits alluded to many likewise extend to these covered Korean veterans. In
addition, VA’s general outreach authority permits VA
to notify veterans who served in Korea in 1968-1969 about the AOR program and
to include them in the Departments AOR examination program updates and
newsletters.